The Penal Colony · event 1 of 9

26 January 1788

The First Fleet lands at Sydney Cove. Eleven ships and around 1,400 people, roughly half of them convicts, under Governor Arthur Phillip. The date is now Australia Day and is also marked as Invasion Day.

The The Penal Colony era

  1. 26 January 1788
  2. April 1789
  3. 1790
  4. 1790s–1802
  5. 1808
  6. 1810
  7. 1816
  8. 1819
  9. 1840

See the full timeline or read the history of Sydney.